Pit Stop

Synopsis

Two men. A small town. A love that isn't quite out of reach.

Recovering from an ill-fated affair with a married man, Gabe finds solace in the relationship he maintains with his ex-wife and daughter. On the other side of town, Ernesto evades life at home with his current live-in ex-boyfriend by spending much of his spare time in the hospital with an ailing past love. Impervious to the monotony of their blue-collar world, they maintain an unwavering yearning for romance. The emotional isolation the two men have grown accustomed to is captured in a subtle, optimistic, poetic fashion while avoiding melodrama.

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Charming and honest, a low-fi little gem of a movie that focuses on those moments after love has departed and just before a new love arrives, what those lonely interludes mean to us and how we survive. Director Yen Tan sets his mood of melancholy from the start and although there are times of appropriate levity he doesn't really let up thanks to some fine softly spoken performances from the four leads that capture a variety of moods and emotions and a well chosen selection of musical cues. Features one of the more impressively shot sex scenes in my memory, one that doesn't feel gratuitous, exploitative or unnecessary, utilising a camera setup that demonstrates real thought and care had gone in to connecting with both the actors and the audience.

Bill Heck is the standout performer who adds an extra layer of quality to proceedings, not exactly carrying the film but boosting it with his subtlety and heart.

Now is as good a time as any to admit that I've grown weary of the woe-is-me homos that litter queer cinema. I don't want to dismiss the experience or anything like that, it's just that I've grown beyond it myself and I'd like to think the community has as well.

That's probably a self-centred take on the queer experience nowadays. And, I'll admit, from the middle of my inner-city, latte sipping, relatively homophobia-free lifestyle, it's super easy to be self-centred.

The view is no doubt very different in small town Texas, the setting for Yen Tan's Pit Stop. There, sexual secrets still weigh heavy and hook-ups, when they can be arranged, are stuffed into shabby roadside motel rooms. At…

A beautiful and thoughtful drama directed by Yen Ten. Pit Stop follows two middle-aged gay men who are trapped by the shackles of their past failed relationships in the confines of a small Texan town. Both wanting the same things in their romantic lives but cornered by their trepidations of letting the past go, that they fail to realise they are right in front of each other and chance is the only thing that can bring them together.

Yen Tan and David Lowery's script is poignantly observant in the mechanisms of a gay relationship, it takes its time to unveil itself as a study of loneliness and self-isolation. Incredibly moving without incessant sentimentality which is solidified by a duo of…

Is there any sort of a market for a no-budget film about older (at least mid-30s old), ordinary, working-class gay men with real-life issues other than sex? There may not be an audience out there clamoring for such a film; but for me it's a breath of fresh air.

Gabe is a building contractor, still in a relationship with his wife and young daughter (for the sake of raising the kid) after a breakup with his boyfriend. Ernesto, Tex-Mex factory worker, has been providing shelter for a much younger, footloose Mexican man while continuing to read magazine articles to his comatose ex-lover. This is in small town Texas near Austin, certainly not an area known to be conducive to gay…

Was initially drawn to Pit Stop because I noticed that the movie's director Yen Tan shares a screenwriting credit with one David Lowery. A gay drama co-written by David Lowery? Yes, please!

Which makes it more of a shame that it's so undistinguished. To its credit, it never erupts into full-on hacky melodrama (though it threatens to at a few points); its general plotlessness is a point in its favor. But in a queer indie film scene dominated by gayngst it doesn't really give us much of a reason to exist.

Moreover, the parallel narratives (its two leads don't meet until the final scene) are so disparate in quality that I have to wonder if Tan wrote one while Lowery…

Was initially drawn to Pit Stop because I noticed that the movie's director Yen Tan shares a screenwriting credit with one David Lowery. A gay drama co-written by David Lowery? Yes, please!

Which makes it more of a shame that it's so undistinguished. To its credit, it never erupts into full-on hacky melodrama (though it threatens to at a few points); its general plotlessness is a point in its favor. But in a queer indie film scene dominated by gayngst it doesn't really give us much of a reason to exist.

Moreover, the parallel narratives (its two leads don't meet until the final scene) are so disparate in quality that I have to wonder if Tan wrote one while Lowery…

That moment when the two main characters meet—after we got exposed to their worries and concerns, after we got to know the people surrounding them, after we yearned for them to get a reprieve from the inhibiting lives they lead—is nothing short of miraculous to witness. This takes place through a hookup, at a gas station, and after the “climax” in bed, while staring face-to-face and lying in each other’s arms, I wouldn’t mind stretching the film further to find out what would happen to the two after the inevitable encounter. Gabe’s grin at the end as he drives off says a lot, but I wanted more because I had stuck with these characters from the start and cared for…

This was a slow character study about that time between falling out of love and falling into love. The characters are fleshed out and while the pacing is slow, it worked for the film. It was nice to see a queer film that was about middle aged men and not just pretty boy teenage/early 20 somethings finding out their sexuality.

"Pit Stop" is a much-needed queer film. It concerns itself not with another handsome teen or 20-something coming out of the closet, but with the struggles of living a queer life as a middle-aged, blue collar man in flyover country. However, as admirable as its guiding conceit may be, the acting never rises above serviceable.